Bushnell Fusion Arc 1 Mile 10×42 Binoculars

Bushnell Fusion Arc 1 Mile Binocular Review.

This months review has been an absolute pleasure. Under conversation with Edgar brothers here in the UK they agreed to loan me some products to try, test and review. Which I am wholeheartedly grateful for.

The pandemic over the last year has made things hard for all sports and that includes outdoor recreation and shooting. Along with this, outdoor shops have not been classed as essential shops so the retailers in the industry have mainly remained closed making it hard for me to get hold of products to test and review.

When Edgar Brothers allowed me the chance to test some of their products I was over the moon.

Over the course of this review, I tested the Bushnell Fusion 10×42 Binoculars under many different conditions that we would find in the field.

Let’s get the Geeky part over with:

Out of the box the Bushnell Fusion Binoculars felt very good quality, good weight and well balanced. Before even looking through the glass from the front room I noticed how comfortable they were in my hand. The manufacturer provided strap was very comfortable and the Butler Creek flip up objective covers and ocular covers were also good quality. First impressions of the binoculars were very good.

The day the Fusions arrived it was snowing heavy, barely could I see the trees 150yrds from my front room window with the naked eye due to how heavy the snow was, nonetheless, I still tried the glass at this close range. The strap was comfortable feeling on the back of the neck and the binos were   comfortable in the hand. Looking through the glass I could see the trees through the snow with no issue even picking up some detail and a pheasant taking shelter at the base of its trunk. Good start.

I started playing with the rangefinder, it worked well even in heavy snow albeit it took a bit of time for the laser to give an accurate distance, but there are not many range finders that can actually work properly in these conditions.

Messing with the settings were easy. The buttons are easy to get to with the orange function button on the right and the mode button on the left body even someone with small hands found them easy to reach.

Going through the menu the Bushnell Fusion has a lot to offer. The Illumination brightness can be set from 1 – 4, 4 being brightest and by heck it is bright, in fact I would suggest using them on 2 specially if you’re working in low light.

The Bushnell Fusion has built in range finder with angle and holdover calculator for those hunters that need that little bit extra. Which include both Bow and rifle modes.

Unlike some other ballistic laser rangefinder binos the Bushnell allows you to choose from preconfigured profile that matches you calibre bullet and bullet speed from various profiles provided listed alphabetically. Preset profiles are listed both in the manual as well as on the Bushnell site (check the website for a better bullet calibre combination as that gives you more accurate information).

Field Test.

Conditions in the Highlands were perfect for testing glass in various conditions, from heavy snow, light sleet, rain and very bright sunshine all conditions that poor glass struggles with. First test was testing the range finder in real hard conditions.

I took the Bushnell Fusion binoculars to an area of open hill a few miles from my house. The weather was a mix of high winds, heavy snow and at times blinding sunshine reflected from the snow.

First task was to see if I could spy any deer, after a short time spying with the Bushnell Fusion Binos I spied onto a lone Sika Hind grazing deep in the valley. Sika are notoriously hard to spot in these conditions often being mistaken for large stones or clumps of heather at distance due to their heavy dark colour. Spying the Sika was actually very easy something that many good glass binos struggle to do and keeping track of the hind while she was feeding allowed me to see here completely making it easy to determine her condition etc. While spying I pressed the orange button on the top right of the Bushnell Fusions and it ranges at 475yrds. I was impressed. Not only was spying easy and clear but if I wanted to stalk into the hind I would not have any issue working out what route I would take without being too close to spook her, something that is very important in “spot and stalk” hunting scenarios.

While sitting on the side of the hill I tested the range finder in many scenarios, there was a howling blizzard forming on the mountain tops across from me but I was still able to use the range finder right out to 1400yrds which for me was phenomenal.

I connected the Bushnell Fusion binoculars to my phone mount and was able to get some great footage to back this up which I will post up.

So the Range finder works perfect even in challenging conditions I wanted to see what the Fusions were like in low light so I took them out foxing with me at night. Lets just say the conditions were far from perfect for me but for the binos they were, the moon was bright and with snow on the ground it was almost like daylight out in the fields. The Bushnell Fusion Binoculars were brilliant seeing everything I needed too with good clarity but as I said the night was bright and this carried on like this for over a week of testing until finally, I was able to get a decent darker night to try them in.

I was stalking Roe in Aberdeenshire on a cull I am involved with, The Bushnell Fusions were a welcome tool right onto the edge of darkness, bye 1730 in the evening it was almost dark but scanning with the Bushnells you would not think so which allowed me to spot a group of three deer at the bottom of the field giving me an idea what deer was about as darkness came.

I got a chance at the range to test the ballistic profiles for my calibres and it seems that all my calibres and bullet combinations are the same profile and it did adequately calculate hold over for ranges up to 400yrds but I would not trust these calculations beyond that distance as at 400yrds they were between 2 and 4 inches off target. Hot all the same but not hugely accurate.

Conclusion

Over the couple of weeks of having these Bushnell binoculars I have enjoyed using them. The RRP is £750 which is as much as £100’s less than other range finding binos on the market of similar quality. Comparing them to other binoculars I have tested these are far better those of a similar price bracket not just in facility but in glass and clarity quality and in light transmission, for many manufacturers this price range would be aimed at some of their entry level binoculars which makes the Bushnell Fusion amazing value for money.

Plus point : Glass is clear, low light capabilities is brilliant and way better than average, comfortable to use and very simple to set up not to mention an entry level price tag compared to others on the market.

Negative points: Ballistic bullet drop info is only accurate to about 400yrds beyond that I would not trust the binoculars calculations in regards to bullet drop.

I really rated the Bushnell Fusions, so much I decided to purchase them from Edgar Brothers, for the price they are exceptional quality giving very good facilities as both a binocular in the field and a laser range finder.

4 stars on the FSS Scale .

Next month I will be reviewing another Bushnell Rangefinder so keep your eye open for that, thank you again to Edgar Brothers for giving me this opportunity to test their products.